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Dark Nights: Metal – Superman’s Crucial Role, Revealed

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Dark Nights: Metal #3 by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo, on sale now.

The story elements have been put into place, the curtain has been pulled back on the Dark Multiverse, and the origins its Dark Knights have begun to be told. Thus, Dark Nights: Metal #3 is free to forge ahead and truly begin to advance Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo’s ambitious storyline. While long established as a Batman-centric event, Snyder shows that he hasn’t forgotten that there are other players within the DC Comics Universe, and they stand to fill major roles in an epic that spans multiverses, and an issue that gives one of them in particular some long-awaited page time. All the while, Snyder and Capullo capitalize on the foundation they’ve built thus far, and truly begin to integrate the big players into an even bigger storyline.

It’s Not a Multiverse-Bending Story Without Superman

We’ve already seen a multiverse or two’s worth of Batmen crossing around dimensions, but everyone knows that a story this cosmic in magnitude can’t be told without at least some high-powered involvement from the Dark Knight’s World’s Finest partner, Superman. The Man of Steel has been a captive of Barbatos’ since the dark god’s arrival at the tomb of Hath Set last issue, strapped to one of his macabre towers and reliving countless imaginary battles against Barbatos until freed by the power of Wonder Woman’s lasso. Seeing that Metropolis has been overrun by a Doomsday virus of Barbatos’ doing, Batman immediately makes his way to Gotham, to confront the villain where he’s set up his deadly base of operations.

Initially thinking he’s located Batman, Superman painfully learns that it’s not his Bruce Wayne that he’s discovered, but instead the Devastator, the Dark Multiverse’s amalgamation of Batman and Doomsday, whose origin is yet to be unveiled. Ambushed by the Devastator, Superman is belted into a frozen and snow-covered Crime Alley, where he next encounters and is taunted by the Batman Who Laughs. During a brutal beatdown by the Devastator, Superman gets an unexpected save by way of a joint effort between Doctor Fate and The Flash.